Posted by Rick Denney on September 23, 2003 at 13:28:11:
In Reply to: The Joy of Playing posted by Chris Horsch on September 23, 2003 at 12:41:24:
I was in an amateur orchestra in Austin when we played the finale of the Brahms 2. I got to relive it this morning when WETA played it on the radio, so it's funny you should mention it just now.
It is a great tuba part and the music is extremely satisfying.
One thing I've noticed in lots of rental parts are the pencil markings of previous players, who one assumes were mostly professionals, giving themselves cues during extended rests. They mark milestones in the music so that they know where they are when those landmarks go by, such as "horn solo" or even such personal cues as "accordion sounds". That last one is in my mind because it's written in the tuba part of the Vaughan Williams 2 from which I'm working at present. It makes total sense in the context of the music, too.
Have you played it with the orchestra yet? I find playing to recordings far more difficult in terms of keeping count than playing in the orchestra, because some music doesn't line up with bar lines in any intuitive way.
Rick "who plays to recordings almost exclusively these days" Denney